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Longmont's Front Range campus to offer machinists' training

High demand for workers cited

By Tony KindelspireLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
12/09/2012 12:09:50 PM MST

Engineering and technology teacher Stewart Jordison watches student Alfredo Prieto use a milling machine during a shop class at the Career Development Center in Longmont last week. The CDC is partnering with Front Range Community College to allow the college to use its equipment for students in its non-credit machining classes, which will begin in early 2013. FRCC is starting the classes due to the high demand for machinists in northern Colorado. (Kristen Merrill/Times-Call)

LONGMONT -- The factory floor has evolved.

Machinists no longer work in smoky, greasy, hot environments. Shops today are much quieter, and often air-conditioned. And much of the actual machining is done on computers.

The problem is there's work to be done but not enough machinists to do the work.

That's the reason Front Range Community College is reinstating non-credit machining courses, designed to train workers to meet the high demand northern Colorado employers have for those workers.

"The administration of the college had heard from businesses even before I came on board," said George Newman, program development coordinator for FRCC, who joined the school in May.

Career Development Center junior Alfredo Prieto is shown using a milling machine during a CDC shop class last week. Due to the high demand for machinists in northern Colorado, Front Range Community College is partnering with the CDC to offer non-credit machining classes using CDC equipment. The classes will start in February and an informational open house will be held this week. (Kristen Merrill/For the Times-Call)

His first assignment was to survey almost three dozen companies -- from "Wellington to Westminster," he said -- to find out how acute the need was.

"Ninety-four percent of them wanted to hire an average of 5.6 machinists per company in the next 12 months," Newman said. "On a scale of one to five, with five being, 'It's almost impossible to find a skilled machinist,' the average answer was four."

So FRCC struck up a partnership with Longmont's Career Development Center. When FRCC abandoned its machinists' program several years ago, it sold all of its equipment. The CDC has agreed to allow the college to hold its classes there, using the CDC's equipment, in the off hours when CDC students weren't using them. FRCC's Longmont campus will be the site of the classroom courses.

"I think it's a much-needed program," said Bob Bergstrom, president of Longmont's St. Vrain Manufacturing. He was brought in by Newman to help design the curriculum for FRCC's courses.

"I think for years people have gone home, turned on the news and seen stories that manufacturing is gone," Bergstrom said. "I think there's this perception that we don't do manufacturing anymore. And I don't think people think of machining as a trade."

His facility, which is full of machinists, is relatively quiet, a fairly clean environment, it's air-conditioned and the machines are mostly computerized, Bergstrom notes, which is not the way people usually imagine a business such as his.

Bergstrom said young people today are as likely to be exposed to a machine shop through television programs such as "Orange County Choppers" or by knowing somebody who is in the trade as they are through shop class at their school.

FRCC will be holding an open house Thursday to talk about their upcoming classes, which will start in February. They will last 10 to 13 weeks and will cost about $2,000 plus a $100 lab fee. Scholarships are available for qualified students. The class will be split between classroom work and hands-on work in a shop, Newman said.

"What the companies tell us is first and foremost they're looking for attitude and employability," he said. "Second, I think a potential machinist should have some sort of mechanical ability because it is a mechanical job."

The third thing, he said, is that applicants should have basic math skills.

The first class will be the basic Introduction to Machining class but other, more advanced classes will be offered later, though details still need to be worked out, Newman said.

Bergstrom said that his shop requires a more skilled machinist than entry level, but he knows that some of his peers do need beginner workers.

Informational session:

When: 3:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday

Where: Front Range Community College, 2190 Miller Drive, Longmont, Building C, in the community room

According to statistics from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, an entry-level machinist can make close to $13.50 an hour, or about $28,000 a year. Experienced machinists can to make about $50,000 a year.

"I think a skilled journeyman with 15 to 20 years' experience can easily (make more than that)," Bergstrom said. "Especially with overtime, and in this environment that's typically available."

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